Posts Categorized: Academics

Parents in Wake County have a wealth of options for public school choice within the Wake County Public School System through the magnet school program that has been a cornerstone of the school system for more than 35 years. WCPSS has over 50 magnet schools across its K-12 continuum, and they are designed to achieve… Read more »

Of the many changes that occurred with the shift to teaching Common Core State Standards perhaps the most noticeable to students, parents, and teachers alike was the move away from using textbooks in English Language Arts and Mathematics. It wasn’t by design that textbooks went away, but it is by design that Wake County Public… Read more »

What, really, is the point of a school performance report? This is the question that hasn’t been answered in the discussion about school accountability. Is it to measure the teaching quality so parents know if their child’s school is really a good school? Or is it a self-assessment measure for schools to look at their… Read more »

It’s official. No one can agree on the best time to start the school year. A recent report from the NC General Assembly’s Program Evaluation Division (PED) found that certain start dates are favored more than others, but none poll at a rate high enough to say with certainty that one is the best. Different… Read more »

The conventional wisdom on K-3 class size is that smaller is better. That was the thinking used when the General Assembly passed its budget last year with a section that limited class sizes for grades K-3 starting with the 2017-18 school year. But like any conventional wisdom, there’s caveats and unintended consequences. Despite the criticism… Read more »

As the North Carolina General Assembly opens its long session on January 25, WakeEd Partnership has released its Public Policy Agenda (PDF) with an emphasis on teacher talent management, improving school accountability measures, and ensuring student equity for all. The document is organized under three main topics: Properly Value the Teaching Profession, Align Academic Standards… Read more »

The results from an international test of 15-year-olds show that North Carolina students are competitive with worldwide peers in reading and science, but lag significantly in mathematics. Administered every three years, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a worldwide benchmark of national education systems. In the 2015 test, students from North Carolina, Massachusetts,… Read more »

The “restart” model for high-needs schools will expand to 10 more WCPSS schools next year. Last week, the state Board of Education approved the application submitted by WCPSS to restart five more elementary schools and five middle schools. All of which are schools that need to improve their test scores. The school system “relaunched” Walnut… Read more »

Wake County Public School System is undergoing a systemic change. That was the message from Vision 2020 Strategic Plan Co-Chairs Karen Hamilton and Beth Hodge to the WCPSS School Board at a recent work session. That change is coming in every area of operation and planning in the school system. Adopted by the school board… Read more »

It’s time to consider applying to a WCPSS magnet school. WCPSS Magnet Schools program is not only one of the school system’s most successful programs ever implemented, it is one of the most successful programs in the nation. Just this past year, Wiley Elementary was named one of just 47 schools nationwide as “Green Ribbon”… Read more »